Meghalaya Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui has promised teachers under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) will receive their two months' pending salaries. His comment came after educators had, on March 2, staged protests against the state government for not clearing their due salaries for five months, from October last year. A delegation of the Meghalaya SSA Schools Association met the minister and urged him to release their pending salaries. Altogether, 12,541 teachers work in SSA schools across the northeastern state.

“I have assured that the government will try its best to release at least two months' salaries of the teachers at the earliest,” Rymbui said. According to him, around Rs 145 crore is required to clear five months' salaries of the SSA teachers. The government will clear the remaining three months' pending salaries after the Centre sanctioned fund for the education scheme, the minister said. He said the government will make efforts to resolve issues related to the implementation of the SSA programme in the state.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is the Centre's flagship programme for the achievement of universalisation of elementary education in a time-bound manner.